Writing, Teaching, & Research

Writing & Scholarship

The lyric poems in this chapbook work to document a brother’s descent into addiction and subsequent recovery, exploring the nature of brotherhood amidst struggle and overcoming.

Reviews:

“Cody Deitz understands something about interiority—that ‘the subconscious is always a terrain’—and he fluidly moves between the psychic space of the shared dark and that brighter horizon where ‘the sun becomes the symbol it always wanted to be, / that slippery metaphor for god, shooting into the well’s eye.’ These are poems of addiction, recovery, fraternal love, and a Ginsberg-like faith that there is salvation in poetry. The genius of Cody Deitz is in his intimate, meditative act of witness, far-seeing yet detailed. He offers an undeniably unifying force of human spirit where we learn the pain and possibility of ‘unmaking. . .the terrible.’ Like the ‘steel refrigerator / with its cord buried in dirt,’ these poems, too, seem ‘plugged. . .into the world.’ ” ~ Leilani Hall, author of Swimming the Witch

“Cody Deitz’s collection documents a brother’s disappearance into addiction, a black hole around which the family spins. After stints in prison, psych care, and rehab, he reemerges barely recognizable — a figure that, like Zeno’s paradox, the speaker can never fully reach, ‘the idea of progress // suddenly unfathomable.’ These events are embodied and presented in vivid, resonant details: Joshua trees, shoe prints in desert sand, the mouths of empty Marlboro packs, the crackle of a prison telephone. In his precise and yet discursive verse, Deitz’s poetic attention is ‘More than turning on a light—it’s becoming // the bulb and the switch and the finger. . .’ ” ~ Heidi Czerwiec, author of Self-Portrait as Bettie Pageand A is for A-ké, The Chinese Monster

This poster was presented on March 2nd, 2017 as part of a public scholarship event through the University of North Dakota Graduate School, highlighting the ongoing research of graduate students from all disciplines. My poster showcases a poem from my ongoing project along with some background on the lyrical poetry tradition.